Robbinsville 12s Softball win away from Little League World Series; will play NY tonight for title

When Lauren Kroepfl ran in from Leon J. Breen Field at the A. Bartlett Giamatti Little League Leadership Training Center, the Robbinsville softball all-star tried to hand the ball to an umpire.

“The ump said, you made that catch, you keep the game ball,” said Robbinsville Little League Softball manager Steve Kiszely. “I think she’s sleeping with that game ball tonight.”

Kroepfl and the rest of the Robbinsville LL Softball 12-Year-Old All-Stars went to bed knowing they had qualified for the final game of the East Region tournament underway in Bristol, Conn.

Representing the state of New Jersey, Robbinsville held on to defeat Rhode Island, 4-2, to advance to the championship game. Robbinsville will meet a familiar foe – New Hyde Park, N.Y., tonight at 7 in the title game. The winner will represent the East in the Little League Softball World Series in Portland, Oregon.

Tonight’s game has the potential to be a classic.

“We’ve got two No. 1 pitchers facing each other,” said Robbinsville coach Steve Kiszely. “Sara Motusesky for New Jersey and Melissa Ward for New York. These are the same pitchers that faced each other on Monday and combined for a one-zero game.”

New Jersey, the only undefeated team in the regional tournament, which was conducted in five-team Mid-Atlantic and five-team New England brackets, defeated New York 1-0 in pool play.

“We like the New York team. We’ve been friendly with them the past two years (Robbinsville fell to N.Y. in regional competition at the 10-year-old level). We’re happy to be participating in the final with them. Whatever happens, we’re proud of the girls. We hope they get a victory (today) but we’re proud and thrilled to be here.”

To get “here,” Robbinsville pushed across four runs in the second inning and held on for the win over Rhode Island.

“Our defense was good and we scored runs when we needed to,” said winning pitcher Sophie Billings, who struck out three, walked two and allowed four hits in six innings.
“I wasn’t really nervous (when Rhode Island cut the lead in half in the fifth inning). I was trying to stay confident. If I can stay confident, I can pitch through things.”

Robbinsville made good use of mistakes by Rhode Island and rebounded when their opponent tried to do the same thing.

“We took advantage of their miscues,” Kiszely said, referring to a three-base error which was part of a four-run, four-hit, three-error summary in the second. “We made some mistakes, too, but we were able to regroup and hold them for the remainder of the game.”